Hi from a newb, at least a newb at aeration. How long do I aerate? One minute, five minutes, half hour? till the oxygen in the Benson red cylinder is gone? (OK I'm assuming that last option is not viable!). Thanks ahead of time for the answer, Tim

popetim wrote:Hi from a newb, at least a newb at aeration. How long do I aerate? One minute, five minutes, half hour? till the oxygen in the Benson red cylinder is gone? (OK I'm assuming that last option is not viable!). Thanks ahead of time for the answer, Tim

I use one of those doohickeys that hook up to a drill, and generally do it for about 10min or so on-and-off. I'm pretty sure how long to oxygenate using O2 has been answered here before, if you search around...

bewm: A word used many, many times in the "Music" album by the band 311.

Yeah, I guess I should have been more specific. How long do I aerate using an oxygen cylinder from the hardware store hooked up to a stone immersed in the wort? Thanks again for answers ahead of time. Tim

popetim wrote:Yeah, I guess I should have been more specific. How long do I aerate using an oxygen cylinder from the hardware store hooked up to a stone immersed in the wort? Thanks again for answers ahead of time. Tim

for 5 gallons using the Red Oxygen tanks you should go about 45 seconds

I aerate with pure o2 Ales for 60-90 seconds and lagers 2:30 - 3:00 minutes. You don't want to let the o2 come out quickly. It should "trickle out". The more foam you get on top of your beer and the more bubbling you see coming through the surface the less o2 you are dissolving in the wort.

Helps if you can move the stone around as well. My aeration stone is attached to a wand and i "swirl" the wand continuously while aerating.

bewm wrote:I use one of those doohickeys that hook up to a drill, and generally do it for about 10min or so on-and-off. I'm pretty sure how long to oxygenate using O2 has been answered here before, if you search around...

10 min

I have used a drill mounted MixStir for years and if you spin it and move it up and down you can have froth out the top of the fermenter within a minute or two...10 seems excessive.

I've used this chart I copied from Brew Your Own or Zymurgy for many years with good results although I've never bothered with any additional 02 for the higher gravity beers like the article says. I also let it trickle out and move it around, you don't want to see a huge amount of foam on top of the wort.

ENJOY YER BEER and let them that don't want none have memories of not havin' any!

majorvices wrote:I aerate with pure o2 Ales for 60-90 seconds and lagers 2:30 - 3:00 minutes. You don't want to let the o2 come out quickly. It should "trickle out". The more foam you get on top of your beer and the more bubbling you see coming through the surface the less o2 you are dissolving in the wort.

Helps if you can move the stone around as well. My aeration stone is attached to a wand and i "swirl" the wand continuously while aerating.

-DavidHe attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.-Douglas Adams

Zapp: Back when I was captain all I asked from my men was their complete loyalty. If I had that, then for all I cared they could sit around the whole day drinking beer in their underpants.Bender: Beer?Fry: Underpants?

At some point too much O2 can be detrimental to the yeast. I cannot remember what that point is, but up to 15 ppm should be fine. I believe Fix noted in Analysis of Brewing Techniques that too much O2 can cause higher than normal cell growth rates and and result in elevated levels of esters. (Ahh, found it, p78, middle of the page). The detrimental info was from Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide p183 and it mentioned at 40ppm the oxygen acts as a sanitizer.

MDixon wrote:At some point too much O2 can be detrimental to the yeast.....

Unless your wort is cold you are going to have a hard time over aerating even with pure O2. It simply does not like to stay in suspension. Without a dissolved Oxygen meter no one knows really how much O2 is in the wort - and, my gosh, DO meters are EXPENSIVE!!

I read a thread a while back elsewhere where people with DO meters were surprised at how much O2 was actually going into the wort. In short they had to nearly double the aeration time to get up to the recommended O2 level.